A user interface includes a set of user interface elements through which a software application may communicate with an external environment, typically, a human user. A human user may interact with the user interface to enter or submit input data into the software application. A software application may use the user interface to display or return output data to a human user.
In some instances, a human user may perform repeated interactions with a user interface in order to update the data of a software application. In an example, a software application monitors the temperature of a particular machine. A human user may read the temperature from a sensor of the machine, and manually input the temperature through a user interface into the software application. The human user may repeatedly perform this action, such as, once per hour, or once per day, so that the data of the software application is current. In another example, a software application maintains an electronic address book of a company's customers. A human user may receive an address change notice in an email inbox. The human user may read an updated address from the address change notice, and manually enter the updated address in the address book. The human user may repeatedly perform this action, such as, every time an address change notice is received in the email inbox.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.